Page 282 - Mike Ratner CC - WISR Complete Dissertation - v6

Chapter IV: Research Revelations

Introduction

Throughout the dialogues I participated across the country, each event always presented a

positive atmosphere (despite the topic) where interest from attendees to come together, engage and

really take seriously the participation process made every Community Conversation noteworthy.

Despite there being some confusion how to run the first community conversation event in Albany

due to the lack of guest speaker time keeping, poor planning or weak facilitation I found

participants at every session eager to consider the topics discussed at hand. There were of course

unexpected outcomes that came out of the conversations. One element of I found across the board

no matter which city or dialogue I observed contained a desire for more. Something had intrigue

participants in which each conversation recognized a “What’s next?” desire either to meet again

or create a follow-up response like a call to action to answer what could be done about the issue at

hand. Concerns were voiced in the third (next to last) Albany dialogue regarding the lack of an

action plan beyond just talking about issues that would justify a city-wide effort to answer resident

needs beyond the dialogue by which they had long felt were not being answered to by their local

representatives. Participants during closing comments in the fourth and final Albany conversation

expressed that they would like to see their recommendations incorporated in the development of

future policies that affect their specific communities at the local, state, and federal levels but to

date, I have not seen anything resulting.

While this view should be added to the conclusions, the expression of interest and desire

for ongoing dialogues bodes well for the nascent Community Conversations movement and it will

be helpful if more groups start collecting data and analysis similar to the work by the Zeidler

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